A Generation of Applicants

Many of us have heard the old adage, “less is more.” It’s a lesson which can be applied to many facets of our lives: Spices in your cooking? Less is more. Decorating the house? Less is more. Women’s swimwear? Less is definitely more. But what about an education? Would it also be correct to argue that less is more?

I would expect to be branded a heretic for making such an outlandish claim, especially from my own grandparents, who once gave me a $5,000 bribe to go back to university. “How could less education POSSIBLY be more?!” They do have a point. This isn’t “the old country” where you can just forget about school, and go milk sheep for the rest of your life. An education IS important. But please, hear me out. I promise you there is wisdom in my seemingly foolish remark.

The job market is getting ridiculously competitive. You, as the reader already know this. It’s how you found The Underemployed Life. I’m sure many of you have noticed a recurring theme amongst job seekers: you go to university and get an education so you may get a good job, just as your grandparents directed.

“I posted an online advertisement, and was receiving in excess of 50 applications per day. Not only was the sheer volume astounding, but the qualifications of the applicants left me speechless.”

After 4 years of coffee fueled all-nighters and handing in assignments 10 minutes before the stroke of midnight (we’ve all been there), you finally have your degree. Congratulations! But there’s just one problem… So do 500 other students from your university alone. And they’re all graduating at the same time you are. AND, they are all going to be competing for the same jobs you will be. Never mind, you will just study for a few years more and then destroy the competition with your master’s degree!

So why are you still unable to get a job?

Let’s take a look at your resume:

Master’s degree in finance

Master’s of business administration

Some weekend bartending work you did to make ends meet while you were studying.

Starting to see the problem? Be honest, would you hire you? Your qualifications don’t sound too impressive when put into context, now do they?

By investing all our time and effort into education, we’ve done ourselves a great disservice by investing NO time into our (equally important) work experience. We are a generation of applicants who have abundant theoretical knowledge and yet, no practical experience to back it up. To put it another way: Since we have no work experience, we’re unable to prove to our potential employers that were capable of applying all our knowledge in the work place.

All brains, no muscle.

We have all gone to school with someone who fits this description. Remember that one kid who was a complete bookworm, but had zero common sense? He could tell you exactly how many isotopes of the phosphorus atom exist, yet couldn’t change a tire on his bike (if he could even ride a bike at all)? The sad truth is nobody wants to hire that guy. Trust me, I used to be that guy. That guy is good at writing assignments and getting questions right on exams, but that’s where his brilliance ends. That guy is not a productive employee and coworker. He is not in high demand.

The first commandment of job seekers:

Thou shalt NEVER be “that guy”

Getting back to the sad predicament our overqualified job seekers find themselves in. Let me explain the situation from the perspective of an employer. I once worked for a cladding/facade company. We used to outsource our accounts department. It was an expensive and inefficient nightmare. After much discussion, we finally convinced the managing director it would be wise to hire an in-house bookkeeper. It would be more efficient, there would be greater oversight, and it would be a lot cheaper than hiring a fully qualified accountant.

Essentially, all we needed was someone who would be in charge of payroll and accounts payable/receivable. Nothing fancy. So he tasked me with finding the right person for the job.

I got straight to work looking for the newest member of the work family. I posted an online advertisement, and was receiving in excess of 50 applications per day. Not only was the sheer volume astounding, but the qualifications of the applicants left me speechless. Not just one or two, but many of the applicants had multiple degrees. I saw a good deal of applicants holding a masters of accounting or a masters of commerce as well as their CPA (Certified Practicing Accountant- a post graduate registration). Seeing these applications concerned me and I voiced that concern with the estimating manager:

“Uh-oh… Dude, check out the qualifications of some of these applicants. MAJOR red flag”

“You think so? I don’t know. I think the more qualified, the better”

“Bro, people don’t spend 6 years in school and get their CPA so that they can be a bookkeeper at Custom Clad!”

If I had those qualifications, I would want to work for one of the banks, not doing payroll for a medium sized façade company. It was painfully obvious these overqualified applicants were merely using us as a stepping stone. This raised the important question; how long would they be with us until they moved on to the next stage of their career?

I’m a little ashamed to admit, but this is what I did, and what I’m sure other employers do: For the first few days, I read every single resume, considered every applicant, and even did a quick Google search of their name so I could see their LinkedIn or Facebook account. This was not a very sustainable practice. I was a busy person and I had a lot of work to do. I didn’t have time to sit around all day reading resumes.

I needed to find a way to quickly filter out the applicants I would consider from those I wouldn’t. I started taking some ignoble shortcuts. I wouldn’t even look at a resume if someone had a very foreign sounding name as it seemed likely they’d have less than perfect English. If I did open someone’s resume, I would first look to see if they specifically had bookkeeping experience in the construction industry. If they didn’t, I would read no further. Eventually, when my list of candidates was considerable, and my pile of printed resumes high, I stopped looking at new applicants altogether. In the meantime, the advertisement was still online, and job seekers were still sending in their resume.

Once again, I’m telling you this horrible story so you may be painfully aware of the situation you are walking in to. Understand, many employers simply don’t have the time to teach you how to tie your shoes, or have the resources to take risks with a newbie whose errors could potentially cost the company a lot of money. This risk becomes particularly senseless when your qualifications have made it clear you’ll leave the moment a better opportunity comes along.

My parents and their friends would often reminisce of a purer time, where you could walk into any business right off the street, with no qualifications, no experience, and the employer would still give you a job. He simply liked your attitude, and felt you had potential.

Some employers are starting to think this way again. After all, skills can always be taught. But the right attitude cannot be taught. Having a degree is no guarantee of having that “right attitude.” Some employers are beginning to return to this purer way of doing business.

“SOME”

Although some employers are beginning to look past your qualifications (or lack thereof) and invest in new talent, it would be cruel of me to let you believe this is standard practice. Finding an employer who thinks this way is the exception, not the rule. After all, they’re running a business to turn a profit. Times are tough for all of us, and employers don’t want to decrease productivity or add any unnecessary risk by employing a person who has never held a real job.

So in sum, before you graduate, and before you begin your job search, it would be wise to invest as much time and energy into building a semi-respectable work history as you do into your education. The payoff for such an investment may be greater than you think.

Harrison Stamoudis is a freelance writer from Melbourne, Australia. After a lifetime of being praised for his intellect and being told “you can do anything you want”, he was doomed to grow up without guidance and direction (it’s difficult to pick a door when they are all open for you). Aimlessly wandered from one job to the next, he struggled to pick a path and stick to it. Harrison often had to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet and the work history list on his resume is a little longer than he cares to mention. Harrison is currently in the process of completing higher education (for a third time) so that he may make his next major career change, this time civil engineering.

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Underemployment Around the Globe

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